I found about Marauder Shields from a Bioware tweet about it, saying it's powerful stuff and pointing to koobismo's deviantart. I think that these words remain the best description for the series: POWERFUL STUFF.

Some nitpicky people here try to prove it's not entirely compatible with the Mass Effect canon because Nihlus turns out to be on Earth. I find it a limiting view. I think it is more than compatible - it expands the perspective of the series. I don't think the "Nihlus is the secret Marauder" plot is a stretch in the world of Mass Effect (it has been explained rather meticulously), as it keeps with Mass Effect's narrative style and approach to probability. The Mass Effect trilogy itself is built on accidental events that happen against all statistical chance, which koobismo even emphasized in his latest installment, citing chaos theory and deriving agency from the life's constant struggle with established systems and rules.

What happens is this: Saren's mind tries to fight indoctrination and in the moment of madness he orders his Geth to take the body of Nihlus. The explosion of the Prothean beacon (something we never see again in Mass Effect and do not know the results of) damages the dragon's teeth in the vicinity, with the teeth closer being shut off completely, the ones further (including the one Nihlus is on) to a smaller degree. This gives a moment of pause in the process going on with Nihlus, enabling his reactivated body to save the "state" of his mind, something koobismo said to be derived from the conversation with Benezia we have in Mass Effect 1, where she does the same. Saren then leaves the marauder as his elite troop to guard something in the heart of the Citadel during the attack on it in the end of Mass Effect 1. They are reactivated when Reapers take control of the Citadel. In fact, when you think about it, the fact we never learn how Reapers take control of the Citadel or are able to transport it to Earth is much more contrived than anything koobismo does.

Comments

NumNumRaffikey

27th Jan 13

In Mass Effect the galaxy is saved by one man, who just happens to be everywhere he should be. In my game I have been the first human being to encounter a Reaper. I was the one who recruited, protected and helped a Salarian who cured the genophage. I influenced an accidentally met mercenary Krogan to unite the Krogan nation. I have been just in time to save everyone I had to, do everything I had to, including finding the only Quarian who ever captured a Geth memory bank, which accidentally housed the single audio file that was needed to prove Saren is a traitor... Which also includes a mention of the Reapers. Statistics say "NO!". But fiction does that, and Marauder Shields isn't worse for it than Mass Effect is. I would go even further - with the latest episode I already cited, koobismo actually goes beyond what Mass Effect did, explaining the reason behind the accidental meet-ups from the games.

I would say this: check it out. Not everyone has to like it, and people grounded in the fan fiction community usually have a harder time accepting it than others, just because it goes far beyond the rules they are used to follow. But for me - it is incredible. It takes a shallow meme and turns it into a complex, deep concept. It is quotable as hell and has given me more than most fiction I ever read - as crazy as that sounds. It doesn't try to be just a Fix Fic. It is a new perspective for the whole series. And I like that perspective. You just have to start looking at it properly to become aware how deep it really goes.

Just try.

nrjxll

27th Jan 13

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I very, very strongly resent the implications made here about why people don't like this comic.

balladinado

27th Jan 13

I dislike any implications made for anyone having any opinion... and there seem to be a lot. There is a review below suggesting that MS is only for those who hate ME, which is outrageous. I think we should just focus on the opinions themselves and stop all the other noise (whether it is intentional or not; the wording isn't really aggressive here, and I didn't notice it until nrjxll posted his comment). In this case I absolutely agree with Num Num Rafikeys view on the writing, I see the deeper layer in all of this. It is a change of perspective and it does make the story deeper.

Eilbert

28th Jan 13

If it doesn't bother you that a character returns from the dead as a sentient Marauder created before Marauders were created out of nowhere, then that's good for you, I suppose. The handwave for Marauder Shields is full of plotholes and is more "space magic" than anything in Mass Effect.

We do know how the Reapers capture the Citadel: the Illusive Man infiltrated the Citadel and warned the Reapers of the Crucible. He captured the Citadel just as Saren did in ME 1.

balladinado

28th Jan 13

@Eilbert
What exact plotholes? Because what I'm seeing is working off what we know about various forms of indoctrination (using what's said in game and the comic with the illusive man's origins - you read that?), the connection between indoctrination and becoming a husk (included in the game, expanded in books and comics), and one assumption that isn't impossible at all - that a prothean beacon might have a certain effect (safety maybe?) on the process if used incorrectly and sending off a signal/energy wave (note that indoctrination is signal/radiation and so is the way protheans communicate by all we know). You quote plotholes and don't show any. Mass Effect is pretty much more "space magic" than this to begin with and we all accept it without a problem.

No, we do not know how the Reapers capture the Citadel. Quote the game where it says how it was done. Quote the game where it explains how it was transported to Earth.

balladinado

28th Jan 13

P.s. "before Marauders were created" is just incorrect. SHEP not seeing a turian husk before ME 3 doesn't mean they weren't there. In the canon comic with the illusive man's origins we see turian husks of various types way before events of ME 1, which means you are incorrect. The lore states that any sentient creature could be indoctrinated and turned into a husk at any time, including past history. You are grasping at straws here.

Eilbert

28th Jan 13

The comic regarding the Illusive Man does not have Marauders in it. The transformed turians are completely different from Marauders. There's nothing that indicates that any form of husk other than the original were being made until ME 3, where the Reapers created new varieties of husks through experimentation on captured victims.

balladinado

28th Jan 13

@Eilbert. There is nothing that indicates that "marauders" were not created prior to ME 3 as well, or that all marauders have to look the same (the name and their generic look is specific to the game, they are defined as "turian husks" and as such appear in the ME 3 canon comics - human husks don't always look the same in the comics or the live-action trailers either). There is however evidence that the Reapers do not limit their husk creation processes due to some random limitations, which are there for balancing the game or due to technical limitations of current consoles. "There's nothing that indicates that any form of husk other than the original were being made until ME 3" is absurd and has nothing to do with the game's story.

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